The present invention pertains to shorthand machines. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a shorthand machine having active tactile feedback to the keyboard, providing the operator with a keyboard response permitting the operator to sense that the keys have moved toward their rest position a sufficient amount to permit paper advance while allowing maximum writing speed.
Shorthand machines are frequently utilized to record oral proceedings, for example at business conferences, court hearings, and other situations where it is desired to have a written record of the oral preceeding. Wholly mechanical shorthand machines are widely utilized for this purpose and generally include a large number of keys, each coupled by a keystem to a type bar or print hammer having an alphabetical character thereon. Some of the print hammers also have a numerical character, and the machine is provided with a numeral bar which can be depressed to change from an alphabetical mode to a numerical mode. When a key is depressed, its associated print hammer is moved to impact against an inked ribbon supported adjacent a platen over which a paper tape passes, causing the printing of the associated alphabetical or numerical character on the paper tape. Numerals and shorthand representations of words can thus be imprinted on the paper tape by the operator to provide a written record of oral proceedings. Such a mechanical shorthand machine is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,319,273, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Some shorthand machines are additionally equipped with a magnetic recording medium and circuitry to record on that medium encoded representations of the alphabetical characters so that as the operator actuates the keys to cause the imprinting of the written record on the paper tape, a magnetic record is also made on the magnetic recording medium. This magnetic recording medium might then be utilized as an input to a transcribing device. Such machines are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,927 and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,351, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
In shorthand machines of either of these types, each key is provided with a spring which retains the key in a rest position during time intervals that the key is not being actuated by the operator. In addition, there generally is a bar, termed a universal bar, extending beneath all of the keystems and retained by a spring in a rest position adjacent the positions when keys are at rest. Accordingly, as the keys are depressed, the keystems depress the universal bar. Thus, when the operator depresses the keys, the key movement is opposed by both the resistance of the keystem springs and the resistance of the universal bar spring. When the operator then releases the keys, the springs return the keys and the universal bar to their rest position.
Nevertheless, a keyboard of this type provides little, if any, response to the operator during return of the keys to the rest position since the action of the keys is merely to follow the operator's fingers back to that rest position. In recording a single word the operator might depress several of the keys in order to create the phonetic symbol of that word. It is not essential that each of the several keys be depressed at exactly the same time or at exactly the same rate, since the paper tape is not moving at the time of printing and since the recording circuitry generally includes components which inhibit recording until all keys are either in the rest position or fully depressed. Likewise, it often happens that as the keys are returning to their rest position, they do not move in unison, some reaching the rest position before others. It is often necessary for the operator to record information at a very high rate of speed, for example when recording a statement made by someone talking rapidly. During such high speed writing, it sometimes happens that the operator does not allow every key to return sufficiently toward its rest position at the completion of the writing of one word before commencing the downward stroke for the next word. The actuation of the keys not only causes the imprinting of the characters on the paper tape, and the recording of the characters on the magnetic recording medium on those shorthand machines so equipped, but also it initials actuation of the platen to advance the paper tape. If the operator does not allow all of the keys that have been depressed for one word to return a sufficient distance before initiating depression of the keys for the next word, the paper tape might not advance the full amount desired. This results in recording of one word partially or fully on top of a previous word, known as stacking of the notes. Likewise, stacking can occur in the recording of the characters on magnetic recording medium.
Shorthand machines having certain components electrically powered are known. By way of examples, U.S. Pat. No. 2,855,082 shows a shorthand machine in which the print hammers are actuated by solenoids in response to movement of the keys, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,208 shows a shorthand machine in which the platen is rotated by a solenoid or motor. Even these machines, however, do not provide tactile feedback to the operator, and so there is no indication to the operator when the keys are sufficiently returned toward their rest position.